Father of Mine
by Mad Cow
Summary: Marco isn't the only one in his family with a secret...


**FATHER OF MINE**

**By Mad Cow**

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_Jeremy chuckled sardonically. "Let me guess. Visser Three's your father, your mother's an Andalite, and I'm no relation at all?"_   
Jeremy leaned against a tree in the Hork-Baijr forest, those words echoing through his head. God, he had almost given it away, right then. Jeremy was lucky Marco had been too caught up in what he was about to say, and not his father's words.   
Eva noticed Jeremy looking...upset, or something close to it. She walked up beside him, and rubbed his right shoulder. "What's on your mind?" She asked him.   
Jeremy sighed. "All those years with Marco, I never told him. He doesn't know."   
Eva kissed him. "If it is so important that he know, tell him the next time he comes to the village. He hasn't come today because it's Saturday. But Marco will come Monday. He doesn't have school, he has nowhere to come but here. You will see. He will come. But if you do not want to tell him, then don't."   
True to Eva's words, on Monday an Osprey was seen floating above the Hork-Baijr village. It flew down, and became the boy known as Marco.   
He greeted his parents, and the Hork-Bajir people in the village.   
By the end of the first hour, Jeremy had pulled Marco aside.   
"There is something you must know."   
***   
The year was 1980. Jeremy Killen was 17, a Junior at Middleton High in Odessa, Texas. He was fairly excited. He was going to be an exchange student for an entire school year. There were only 5 students from their school going. They were headed off to Australia, England, Ireland and Brazil. But Jeremy was going elsewhere. Puebla, Mexico. Jeremy had a very good grasp on the Spanish language, you couldn't grow up in Texas without basic knowledge of it.   
The plane touched down. Jeremy passed through customs. He opened up his bag, and pulled out a sign.   
"Are you the Cebolas?" It read in Spanish. Before long, he was greeted by a family of four, who turned out to be the Cebolas. Cida and Amado, the parents and their two children, Maria and Marco. Marco was only 13, but Maria was Jeremy's age. They traveled back to their home, and Jeremy enjoyed his first Mexican meal.   
Days went by, weeks, months. Jeremy began to teach Maria English, and as her knowledge grew, so did their love for each other. They began to sneak out at night, to be alone together.   
One night, they were talking in English. They did that a lot, to help Maria. "Jeremy?" She asked, her face appearing pale in the moonlight. "Sometime, when you are back in America, will you come to visit me?"   
"Of course," He replied, and kissed her.   
Summer came, and Jeremy left, going back to America. To pizza and hamburgers, clean pools and clean water. But he had learned a lot, and he would miss Maria very much.   
He thought of Maria often, and longed to return, but it was 1985 before Jeremy was able to return to Puebla. Jeremy drove through the city, remembering what it was like 5 years ago. She stopped at a house he knew well, and knocked on the door. Marco answered. He was not a boy 13 anymore, but a man of 18. "Hola, Jeremy," He greeted.   
Jeremy asked where Maria was, and Marco told him she was out back.   
Jeremy ran to Maria, and found her crying. He took her in his arms, letting her tears drip on him, not knowing why. She finally looked up, her beautiful face tearstained.   
"I am pregnant," She said finally. "By a man in Puebla I thought I loved. But he left me."   
She asked him to take her with him to America. He agreed. When she received her citizenship, she said she did not want to be known as Maria anymore. She wanted to be gone of the name that had meant sadness to her. "Eva." She wanted to be called.   
In the winter of 1985 the two were married. In spring of 1986 she had her son. She named him Marco, after his uncle.   
Eva wanted not to tell Marco Jeremy was not his father until he was much older.   
"No one will believe that I am the father of this boy," Jeremy pointed out.   
"They will if you love him." Eva said. She won the argument. Within a few months of his birth, Jeremy had legally adopted little Marco.   
Marco grew, and so did Jeremy's love and affection for this little boy. It was truly a fathers love, and Marco had no reason to ever question it.   
***   
_2000_   
Marco turned to his mother, who was softly crying. "So you don't know where my real father is?"   
She shook her head. Marco embraced Jeremy. "But I have you, so I don't ever need to know." 

_Disclaimer(hey! This is the first one I've ever written!): I don't own animorphs, yadda, yadda, yadda. And by the way, this story is in no way connected to any other fic I write. Some times I do that, but in this case, I will never refer to it in a fic again(Unless I do Father of Mine 2!)._


End file.
